Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Memories

Did you ever wake up too early in the morning and then couldn't get back to sleep?  I did that is morning and so I just laid in bed and for some reason, I started thinking about buying gas for the car in today's world and what it was like buying gas when I was young.

Today we go in to all self serve gas pumps, swipe our card, select our grade of gas then pump our gas and drive away, never seeing or talking to anyone.   I did this last week and it cost me almost $60 to fill the tank.  I really don't like get gas for the car but then we don't go very far and I only have to do this every 3 to 4 weeks.  I know a lot of you out there do this every week or more.

Now for the story about getting gas that I was thinking about this morning.  When I was young, I never even thought about pumping the gas myself.  In fact no one pumped there own gas.   It was unheard of.  You had gas stations where you pulled into the pump, a nice man came out and asked you how much gas you wanted, pumped the gas then checked your oil and water levels and washed the windows in the car, took you money and thanked you for stopping by.  You usually only bought $2 worth of gas.  This would probably get you around most of the week.  The gas stations were also set up with a garage attached too it so when you needed to have the oil changed, a tuneup or even new tires, that is where you went.  You were on first name basis with the owner and whoever worked for him. 

I wonder if there are any of these type of stations still around somewhere in the back roads of our country.  I miss the friendly people from back then and someone else pumping my gas.